Next-Gen Touchscreens Allow for 10-Finger Multitouch

Multitouch capacitive displays, such as those found on the iPhone and Palm Pre, typically max out with two-finger tapping. But a new next-gen display, announced Wednesday by touchscreen manufacturer Synaptics, should up that limit by a factor of five.

The new Synaptics ClearPad 3000 Series display, which the supplier announced Wednesday, can detect up to 10 discrete touch points. The key to this ability is a completely new mechanism for recognizing touch. The current generation of capacitive touchscreens recognizes points of contact by scanning along the X and Y axes of the screen. The new screen instead acts like a camera sensor and builds an image of all the electrically conductive objects (such as fingertips) within the screen's sensing region at any given moment.

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So what can be done with 10 fingers that can't be done with two? Other than a "crumple" gesture that Synaptics is touting as a clever way to "trash" a screen" (check it out in the video below)—not much. But that's not the point. The real advantage comes from the new finger-recognition method, which should allow for a greater level of sensitivity and nimbleness with existing multitouch applications—especially those requiring quick presses of multiple virtual "buttons," and anything involving a virtual keyboard. And, hey, you can also play multifinger games against friends using two sides of the same screen. (Tennis, anybody?)

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The new screens also promise lower power consumption and narrower borders around the edges (meaning more of the front of a gadget can be devoted to the screen).

And the way we see it, the best is yet to come. Although Synaptics never suggested it to us, we don't see any real reason why this new screen can't be used to detect how much finger pressure is being applied (something that would open up a whole host of possibilities).

Basically, the ability to detect a whole lot of discrete touch points could, in theory, allow the screen to differentiate between a lightly pressing finger and one jamming the screen (the latter of which would flatten your finger pad and cause it to cover slightly more surface area, which the sensor could pick up on). And while the new screen has a stated multitouch limit of 10 fingers or points, the guys at Synaptics suggested to me that this is an arbitrary ceiling designed to preserve processing power (extreme multitouch requires an extreme amount of processing power).

At first, the new screens will be made in sizes up to 8 inches (making them useful for anything up to and including netbooks). Currently, capacitive screens are extremely rare (and expensive) in anything larger than small handheld gadgets. Synaptics claims the new 8-inch screen-size limit should allow it to work its way into larger gadgets that typically have had to rely on less-responsive single-touch resistive screens, such as GPS navigation devices.

How it Works: Touchscreen Technology

>Capacitive Touchscreens

The screen has layers of electrically charged metal particles. The device detects touch by sensing where your finger's natural charge interacts with the screen's.

PROS: More sensitive than resistive screens. Can sense when a finger is approaching, allowing it to front-load processes. Allows multitouch.

CONS: Requires contact with skin (or a special conductive stylus). Expensive. Water and dust can interfere with the electrical current.